This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 2002-203620 filed in Japan on Jul. 4, 2001, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a technology for automatically determining the photographing mode when a subject is photographed in an image forming apparatus such as a digital camera.
Some conventional film-based cameras are designed so as to automatically determine the photographing mode according to the photographing condition of the subject when the subject is photographed. Examples of the photographing mode include a portrait mode, a sport mode and a landscape mode. One photographing mode is selected from among a plurality of photographing modes according to the photographing condition such as the photographing magnification and the focal length when a subject is photographed, and a corresponding processing configuration preset for the selected photographing mode is set. For example, when one photographing mode is selected, according to the selected photographing mode, whether to use flash or not at the time of photographing is determined or the contents of exposure control are determined.
However, in the case of the conventional film-based cameras, even though a subject is photographed by applying the automatically determined photographing mode, it is unknown whether an image desired by the user is obtained or not. Therefore, when a photographing mode different from the photographing mode for expressing the user""s photographing intention is automatically determined, photographing is performed without the user""s photographing intention being clearly expressed.
The present invention is made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and an object thereof is to provide an image forming apparatus and an image forming method capable of reducing failure in photographing due to a mis-determination of the photographing mode when the automatic determination of the photographing mode is performed.
The above-mentioned object is attained by providing an image forming apparatus and an image forming method structured as described below.
An image forming apparatus of the present invention comprises: an image pickup part for forming an image of the subject, a selecting part for automatically selecting a photographing mode at the time of photographing, a display part for displaying the image of the subject; and a display control part for displaying a kind of the photographing mode selected by the selecting part and the image of the subject on the display part.
Further, in the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the photographing mode is displayed by the display control part so as to be superimposed on the image of the subject.
Further, in the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the selecting part selects one photographing mode from among a plurality of photographing modes based on a photographing condition when the subject is photographed.
Further, in the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the photographing condition is at least one of the photographing magnification, the focal length, the luminance, the light source and the movement of the subject.
Further, in the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the selecting part sets a photographing control parameter at least one of the exposure control, whether to use flash or not, the gamma correction value, the sharpness processing and the color correction value in accordance with the selected photographing mode.